Thick, floating mat of yeast

[Graham Carter]

Hi,

After following the same recipe for several years I suddenly have a problem. I have a thick mat of floating yeast which will not break up or sink. I can lift it out with a stirrer and it does not even break up then. It has made my beer cloudy but has had little effect on the taste.

I have changed my primary fermenter but the same thing happens.

A few particulars about my recipe :-
I boil LME in about 12 Litres with hop pellets, add sugar & Irish Moss, cool with 4 Litres of ice and add to about 10 Litres of water.
I buy my LME in 25kg jerrycans and am part way through one; earlier batches from this jerrycan had no problems.

The yeast I am using is Safale S-04 from Fermentis. I usually do 4 batches from the same sachet of yeast. This problem has been present through 2 sachets of yeast. I don't usually record the batch numbers of the yeast sachets, but I have done so for the second of the two.

Can anyone shed any light on the possible cause of my problem, please?

Graham Carter

[Scott Alfter]

Post by Graham Carter
I boil LME in about 12 Litres with hop pellets, add sugar & Irish Moss,
cool with 4 Litres of ice and add to about 10 Litres of water.

Who knows what bugs are biding their time in your freezer, waiting for a
warmer environment (such as some freshly-made wort) to take off? Dumping
ice into wort to cool it is generally regarded as a Bad Idea. You can
circulate icewater through a wort chiller to improve its effectiveness, but
that's about the only place ice has in brewing.

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[baloonon]

Post by Graham Carter
After following the same recipe for several years I suddenly have a
problem. I have a thick mat of floating yeast which will not break up
or sink. I can lift it out with a stirrer and it does not even break
up then. It has made my beer cloudy but has had little effect on the
taste.

It may well be an infection of some sort, although if it's not affecting
the taste it may be something fairly benign.

It sounds like it's behaving like a top cropping yeast like Wyeast 1469. I
like 1469 a lot, you just have to remove the krausen with something like a
slotted spoon and when it's done fermenting, cold crash and possibly use
gelatin or another fining.